Fullmetal Sorcerer
by Andrew Cross
Summary: Two years have passed since events in The Conqueror of Shamballa. The Elric brothers, thinking they have found a way home, instead cross the boundary to another world. In this new world Sorcery reigns supreme.
1. Chapter 1: The Array in the Desert

Fullmetal Sorcerer

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Fullmetal Alchemist stuff. I do, however, own the rest of it.

Chapter 1: The Array in the Desert

Edward Elric heard a pair of familiar footballs echoing down hall to the tiny office he had rented. Two years ago he and his brother had moved to Chicago, Illinois in the United States of America. They had hoped to use the city of a kind of base of operations to stop the mad physicist Huskisson from spreading the knowledge of his atomic bomb. Ultimately, they were not able to keep that knowledge secret. Fortunately, this United States government at least did not seem to want to actually use the bomb. Many groups of scientists even seemed to be trying to harness the power of the bomb and use it as a source of electricity. Perhaps everything would work out for the best.

The glass in the doors windowpane that read "Elric Engineering" rattled as Alphonse Elric threw the door open. He was slightly out of breath, his cheeks tinged with the tale tell color of exertion. Alphonse had changed quite a bit over the last two years. His face squarer, and build quite a bit stockier. He was taller too, almost 5'8". His eyes still shone with the same kind of boyish innocence mixed with hard gained wisdom they always had. Ed hadn't changed nearly as much. His frame was still small, though he was only a couple inches shorter than his brother.

"Ed, look what I found!" Al said holding up a manila folder, excitement punctuating his every word.

Ed eagerly held up his hand, and Al gave him the folder. He quickly opened it up, knowing that anything that would make his brother this excited would be worth knowing. Inside were aerial pictures of some desert. The pictures were freshly developed, probably only hours old.

"The good ones are in the middle." Al said.

Ed flipped through the pictures until he came to the middle. When he saw the picture Al was talking about, he could almost feel the rest of the world stop around him. Clearly drawn into desert were lines. Lines that made a very familiar pattern. He looked up immediately to see Al's smiling face.

"That's a transmutation circle. Where were these taken?" Ed said knowing that he was now sounding every bit as excited as his younger brother.

Al nodded. "The Tule desert, Arizona. Look at the next one."

Ed studied the pictures for a few more minutes. Each time he saw a new one that same feeling of having his reality redefined was hammered through his body. When he saw the last one, his hands were shaking so badly he dropped the folder.

"Al, it's the same kind of circle that brought us to this world."

Al nodded again. "Do you think this means we can go home?"

" Who knows? But attaching that camera to a nimbus was a total stroke of genius," Ed said. "Come on. Pack. We're going on a trip."

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The Nimbus II hummed through the night sky. The twin-engine passenger plane was based on the design of the Nimbus I that had earned the Elric brothers a small fortune. It had room for six passengers, and was the fastest personally owned aircraft currently available on the market.

Ed was trying to sleep, but couldn't do anything more than stare at the ceiling. His mind kept racing as he thought of the photos, images carved into his mind. In one of the seats behind him he could hear the fortuneteller Noa snoring softly. He wondered if, when the time came, she would follow them back to their world or remain in this one. She would probably go where Al went. The two of them had become quite close over the last couple of years. Ed kept wondering when his brother would put a ring around her finger.

Giving up on sleep, Ed stood up and made his way to the cockpit. A small light bulb burned in the cockpit, illuminating the instruments. He sat down in the co-pilot seat next to Al. "We close?" He asked.

"Another hour 'til we land. Then it's another 4 hours by car to where these were taken. How's all the equipment check out?"

"It's fine. If this is what we think it is..." Ed left the rest unsaid.

Al's face fell just a little. "I know. But let's not get our hopes up. The chances of this being real are almost none."

Ed shook his head. "I think they are better than that. Much better. I've been going over these pictures for the last couple of hours. This transmutation circle is genuine. I'm certain. It's a transmutation circle that leads to the other world. I've seen these before, and there is no mistaking what it is."

"But it's so big" Al said.

"I've been thinking about that. Alchemy takes energy to work. Something like going to another world would take lots of energy. Now, the circle is made up of black stones placed in lines on the desert surface. I think the rocks absorb the heat of the sun and convert it into energy to be used to work the transmutation circle. Also, there is one line out of place. If we were to move the line into place starting at sunrise, then by the time we finished it would be near sunset. Or when the rocks were at their hottest."

"That would give us enough power to work the array?" Al asked.

"Probably. That's my theory anyway. And look at the center of the Array. I've never seen a pattern exactly like it. But if you had to guess, what would you think that this array would do?" Ed asked.

Al took the picture and studied it for a moment. Ed watched him work his lips, silently muttering to him self as he worked out the possible purposes for the array he was looking at. Like someone flicking on a switch, Al's face brightened in comprehension.

"It would let someone in the center of the array travel through the gate safely! Wow. Whoever designed this was a real genius." Al said.

"So, it should work!" Ed said.

"If you think it will work, I'll trust you. Who knows more about Alchemy than you, anyway?" Al said.

Al didn't say anything else after that. Ed watched the night moon for a minute. It was a bright full moon, a moon that he and his brother had trained so hard under for so many months. It was one of many things that were the same in both worlds. So many things were the same in both worlds. The landmasses were the same. As far as Ed could tell, all the people in the world had a counterpart in his world. So many things were different too. This world was so much more peaceful. That was one of the main reasons he wanted to return to his world. This world just did not need him as badly.

"Hey Al, want me to fly for a while?" Ed asked.

"No thanks. Remember Cairo?"

"Hey! I'm a much better pilot now!"

"Oh yeah, what about Los Angeles?"

"Ancient history."

"That was two weeks ago!"

The brothers bickering continued until the plane landed.

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The truck they rented looked more than sturdy enough to carry them out into the dessert and back. A quick inspection did not reveal any mechanical problems. Ed kept saying that taking the extra tanks of gas was a waste of time because they would not be coming back, but you could never be too careful.

Al double-checked the map one last time. The directions he gave Ed were perfect. In four hours they would reach the edge of the transmutation circle. Al wished they had outfitted the truck with proper tires. If this turned out not to be a gate back home, that was one innovation he was going to be sure this world got, post haste. Two hours after they started, Ed pulled over to relieve him self.

As he left Al asked Noa "Hey. How do you feel about all this? About leaving this world."

Noa sighed. "Al, we've had this talk before. I don't have anything here other than you and Ed. Even in this country people still treat me badly. I'll follow you wherever you want. I just want to stay with you."

Al felt a pair of spots on his cheeks even warmer than the desert sun. Noa could usually make him blush just with a look. When she was trying, he didn't have a chance.

"Yeah. Me too. I'm glad you want to come with us Noa. I love you."

"I love you too Alphonse Elric."

"Now lets cut this mushy stuff out. Ed is coming back. I don't want to get teased all the way through the desert."

Noa giggled.

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"Hey Al, check this out. The line we need to move is made up of individual black rocks that form a line because they are all touching. But look at the rest of the circle. It's one big piece. I wonder who made this." Ed said.

Al let out a low whistle, clearly impressed. Making something like this without the use of alchemy would have been hard. Ed thought that maybe this had come from his home world too. If that was the case, then it probably was made with alchemy. Still, even with alchemy it would not have been an easy construction to make. The construction was made from black rock and stretched nearly as far as the eye could see. The size of the array was immense. Not since Scar had made the array that resulted in Al turning into the philosophers stone had Ed seen such a construction.

"All right, we'll set up camp and then get to work fixing the array so it will work." Ed said.

Ed wanted to double-check the pictures before they started moving the rocks that made up the transmutation circle. He was confident in his ability to finish the circle, but he knew it wouldn't hurt to have his brother check his work. Ed was probably the second best alchemist of the age.

"I'll handle camp. You two get to work figuring out your circle" Noa said.

Al started to protest, but Noa cut him off. "I've been setting up camp since I could walk. I can handle it. I can't help you two with the circle. Let me do what I can."

Ed smiled watching the two of them. He wondered if his mother and father were like that in the past. They were so cute together.

Ed asked Al to draw a picture of what the thought the finished transmutation circle should look like. As Al drew the circle on one of the pieces of paper they had brought, so did Ed. When they compared the two, they came up with exact drawings. By the time they finished, Noa had already gotten camp set up and a fire going.

"Ok, so we move the base line four degrees to the east, and make it so it has a ninety degree turn here." Ed stabbed a line on one of the pictures.

Al hung his head. "That line is a mile long." He said.

"1.12 miles actually." Ed corrected.

"We'll have to start early in the morning if we are to get it all moved by Sunset." Al complained.

"It won't be that early. If we start moving rocks by 9:00 we should be done in plenty of time." Ed said.

"At least you won't be hungry. I make good campfire breakfasts," Noa said.

Ed stood up and walked over to the truck. He removed a tool kit and walked back to camp. From the kit he removed a screwdriver and a small wrench.

"Hey Al. Could you help me with my arm? The articulator in my ring finger is sticking again."

Ed had been wearing his prosthetic automail arm and leg for a long time now. It did not fit quite as nicely as they did when Winry first gave them to him. She built them to grow with him with only minor adjustments, but without a major tune up the arm and leg just did not work as well as they used to. Ed figured he had about two more years to learn how to tune them properly or he would be stuck with a wooden leg and hook for an arm. He was capable of minor repairs, but that was the extent of his auto mail abilities. It would all be a moot point in a day or so anyway when they were able to get home, but it was a concern. Ed thought that even after he had Winry tune his arm, he would still learn to do the repairs.

Al helped his brother remove his arm. Ed added a couple drops of oil to the malfunctioning joint, and tightened a screw had come loose. He examined the remainder of the major parts, tinkered a little with the elbow joint and then replaced his arm. Then he did the same thing to his automail leg. It was in slightly better shape. Ed tended to punch things more often than kick them.

Ed checked his pocket watch and saw it was only four in the afternoon. The desert heat was brutal, even in the shade of their tent. He lay back on his bedroll.

"So, what should we do to kill the next few hours?" he asked his companions.

Noa spoke up. "Why don't you guys tell me a story about your world?"

"Why bother. We'll see it soon enough." Ed responded.

"We won't see the whole thing will we? Come on, I want to hear it." She said.

Ed sighed. "Fine. Al, tell her about the state alchemist exams."

Al started to tell Noa about their adventures in Central City. As Al droned on, Ed's thoughts drifted back to the past. He had a lot of good times in central city, but a lot of hard times as well. It was there, for the first time, that he saw how truly ugly humankind could be. Eventually memories of the past combined with his brother's words lulled him to sleep.

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Ed awoke with the taste of dust in his mouth. He spat on the ground next to him, and then rose to go get some water. Outside his tent, the sky was pink with a desert sunset. He took a small sip of water from one of the water jugs to wash out his mouth and then spit it on the ground. Then he took a much longer pull. The desert air was dry and it had burned his throat as he slept.

Al and Noa were still talking. Noa was cooking some kind of stew in a pot. He watched her add the milk and wondered how something that tasted so bad could be an ingredient in something that tasted so good.

He approached the pair, and heard Al still telling stories. Noa was listening intently as she cooked. Neither acknowledged him until he took a seat around the fire with them.

"Good nap?" Al asked.

Ed rubbed a cramp in his neck. "Hot as hell. I miss the cool European nights."

"Hey Ed, what is the first thing you are going to do when you get home?" Al asked.

"I'm goanna go find Mustang. Last time I didn't have time to show him I was still the best." Ed said.

"I think we should go see Winry first. I bet she misses us." Al said.

"Yeah" Ed said.

He hadn't really though about Winry in a long time. He tried not to. Thoughts of her always made him feel both bad and good at the same time. Noa kept telling him that he had a crush on her. After four years, he was pretty sure he just missed a dear friend.

Ed noticed he had a goofy look on his face. He did that sometimes when he though of Winry. He also realized that Noa and Al were whispering to each other. He grabbed a small rock and bounced it off his brother's head. "It's not polite to whisper about other people. Especially right in front of them!"

"Al's told me a lot about Winry. I can't wait to meet her." Noa said.

Ed's anger diffused once he started thinking about going home again. He saw Al smile, but then saw his smile fade just as quickly. Ed was never really that good reading peoples emotions, but his brother was an open book. He could tell when something was wrong with his brother even when he was stuck in that suit of armor. "What's wrong Al?" he asked.

"I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with the Array." Al said.

"Don't worry. We both went over it thoroughly, and came up with the exact same changes needed to make it work. I'm the best alchemist in a hundred years. And you're about as good as I am. We can't both be wrong, right?" Ed said.

As shifted his weight a bit "I guess not. Maybe I'm just getting excited about going home." He said with a small smile.

"Damn right you are!" Ed said.

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Ed's wind up alarm clock woke the three of them up at promptly 7:00 in the morning. Al complained that it was too early. Noa complained that she needed a bath. Ed laughed at them both claiming that wealth had made the two of them soft. Secretly he wanted to use the hammer in their toolbox to shatter the alarm clock into tiny noiseless bits.

"It will be a shame not being rich anymore." Al said while waiting for breakfast.

Ed smiled. If his brother was talking like that it meant he did not doubt that they were going to go home soon. Ed would never say it, but having his brothers confidence in the project made him fell a lot better. If both he and Al believed in it, there was no chance to fail.

"Yeah, but we will be able to do Alchemy again. I think it's a fair trade." Ed responded.

Al didn't have a counter argument to that. Both brothers missed doing alchemy terribly. Al claimed to find engineering every bit as exciting as alchemy, but Ed knew he was lying. After spending a lifetime learning the science that was alchemy, anything else just failed to measure up. Engineering was exciting, especially when flying through the air using a newly designed jet engine. It would never bean the exhilaration of turning a pile of stones into a building in an instant.

Noa whipped up a campfire breakfast that was every bit as good as she promised it would be. There were little sausages that came out of a can mixed in with some beans, rice and a couple of things Ed could not identify. She also brewed a pot of very strong black coffee. The desert night was still cold, and not enough of the daytime heat had made its self known to make drinking a nice hot cup of coffee an uncomfortable experience. All in all, it was not their normal breakfast fare, but it was good.

As they ate, they talked about the task at hand. Ed wanted Noa to help Al out. Even though Al had much bigger muscles, Ed was physically stronger because of the auto mail. The artificial arm could lift more than both of Al's admittedly much bigger arms could together. And the automail would never get tired. Besides, Ed knew that Al would take any alone time he could with Noa. No one knew where in the world that the transmutation circle would place them, so they potentially faced a journey of a couple weeks or more. Alone time would be scarce for a little while.

Once breakfast was done, Ed took the truck and set out to the other side of the giant circle. It took him a couple of minutes to make the trip. The damn thing really was over a mile in diameter.

Once he reached his end, he started to get to work. He only had to carry each rock about five feet, and each rock only weighed about twenty-five pounds, but there were hundreds upon hundreds of rocks to move. It was early in the morning and already the day was getting hot. Ed cursed a couple of different gods and then started to move the first of about a billion rocks. Al was right. This was going to be a long day.

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The work, as Excruciatingly boring and tedious as it was, actually went faster than Ed originally thought it would. It seemed Al's large muscles were made of sterner stuff than he though. Soon the brothers and Noa found themselves standing at the center of the array. Both Elric brothers had soaked their shirts and pants through with sweat. All three of them had their hair plastered to their scalps thanks to the day's exertion.

"Last one." Ed said.

"Yeah. We'll know if this will work in just a minute." Al said.

Ed picked up the last rock and walked it over to where it needed to go. "Moment of truth." He said.

Then he dropped the rock. Almost immediately Ed could fill the familiar buzz of power that came from standing inside of an array fill his body. It was as powerful an array as he had ever felt before in his life. He could tell by his brother's smile that he could feel the same thing.

"All right!" Ed said throwing his hand in the air.

"It's really going to work. We are really going to go home!" Al said.

Ed grabbed his brother in a hug. "We did it. Come on. Lets get our things and then lets go home."

Only the tangible heat kept them from running back to their campsite to collect the few things they wanted to take with them. None of their supplies were really necessary. After all, both were masters in alchemy and could easily fabricate anything that they would need for a journey. They couldn't help them selves in running back. Even Noa had to run to keep up with them.

All three of them were badly out of breath when they got back to the center of the Array. Even though as a group they were in fantastic shape, running through the desert at five-o-clock on a hot afternoon after having moved rocks all day was difficult. Each took a long pull from the jug of water they had brought. A few moments passed while they caught their breath.

"All right guys. I'm ready to see your home now." Noa said, sounding nervous and excited at the same time.

Ed looked into Al's eyes and smiled. "Ready to go Brother?"

Al smiled back. "Yeah. Lets go home."

As one, both Elric brothers clapped their hands together. Ed could feel the power of the transmutation circle flow into his body and through his arms. He could the feel the nearly unlimited potential in the palm of his hands. At the same time, both brothers slammed their hands down on the surface of the array.

For the space between moments nothing happened. Then a brilliant white light erupted from the array. Ed felt a pulse of power shake his whole body. The light intensified, causing him to close his eyes and turn his head away from the array. A few seconds later, the light dimmed. He opened his eyes and saw that world previously around him was gone. Instead of miles and miles of desert, he only saw a million different colors swilling madly around him. It was so different from the time he traveled through the array in the rocket.

Noa gasped. "So beautiful," she said.

"This is wrong." Al said sounding panicked, "It's not supposed to look like this! Where is the gate?" He was getting more frantic as he went on.

Ed opened his mouth to tell his brother everything would be fine. However, before the sound could come out, Ed felt a giant pressure on his whole body. If felt like being buried under a thousand pounds of rock. The pressure forced the air out of his lungs. He felt someone grab his hand. It had to be Noa. Al was still a couple of feet away from him. Ed tried as hard as he could to get close enough to Al to grab his hand. Inches felt like miles as he got closer. Seconds felt like days. When his hand was four inches away from his brothers, the array flared up again. Light as bright as the sun blinded him. The pressure got worse. He felt his fingertip brush against his brother's seconds before consciousness left him.

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AN: Well, here it is. The first work that I have had the guts to post. Please feel free to review it, critique it, or flame the hell out of it. If I get positive responses I'll post more. Also, this IS in raw form. I don't have pre-readers of any kind, so if you see a glaring mistake feel free to point it out. I'm doing this to improve my writing skills as much as anything else.

Thanks for reading :-)

Andrew Cross


	2. Chapter 2: Peach Grove

Fullmetal Sorcerer

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Fullmetal Alchemist stuff. I do, however, own the rest of it.

Chapter 2: Peach Grove

Ed opened his eyes, unable to get a firm grip on his thoughts. He knew he was doing something important, but what exactly that was escaped him. It was like trying to grab water. Around him, countless trees and a blue sky with puffy white clouds were spinning slowly, making him fell sick to his stomach. When he tried to sit up, the world only spun faster. His breakfast threatened to come back, so Ed flopped back down on the ground. He tried closing his eyes to stop the spinning. The feeling of spinning continued, but then the he also felt like he was rolling backwards as he spun. Eyes open was certainly better.

Ed couldn't really tell how long it took for everything to stop spinning. He knew it was a while, because he was able to watch the sky change from blue to purple as time passed. Just as the light from the first starts started to peek through the sky, the world finally stopped spinning enough for Ed to focus his thoughts.

He sat up with a start, which turned out to be a mistake. The world started spinning the moment he moved fast. He slowly looked around looking for Al and Noa. Neither of them was near by. He called out for them, but got no answer. He looked around to see that he was sitting in a large patch of grass. There were trees around, but not too many. He was in grassland of some kind. The day was cool, and as the sun when down it only got a little colder. He was a long ways away from any type of desert. Fortunately, his backpack sat only a couple of meters from where he was. In the distance he could see a road running across the horizon. Next, he looked up at the sky. At least the stars were still familiar. They never changed, even when he went to other worlds. Later he could use them to navigate.

Ed shakily got to his feet and made his way over to the nearest tree. He would probably do fine without a fire during the night, but sleeping in the total dark was uncomfortable. All sorts of bugs came out of the woodworks with out the light and heat of a fire. He gathered a pile of sticks and placed them in a pile not far from the tree.

"All right. One little transmutation and I should have a fire in no time." He said to himself.

Ed clapped his hands together. He felt the familiar power surge from the world around him and follow his arms into a circle. He thrust his hands down atop the pile of sticks. Nothing happened. For a long moment he could only stare at the pile of sticks. It was impossible for him to make a mistake on such a simple transmutation. He tried again. He could distinctly feel the power flow through his arms and out of his palms when he placed them upon the pile of sticks. But still nothing happened.

Ed furrowed his brow in worry. Even if he had not practiced his alchemy in two years, this was not something he could forget. Alchemy came as natural to him as breathing. Maybe he was still disorientated form spending the whole day too dizzy to move. When he tried a third time, he noticed something very wrong that he did not notice before. It reminded him of the time about a year ago when he badly shocked himself on one of the Nimbus aircraft. It had burned him, just as surely as the campfire had burned him when he was little. But the pain was different even though they had both been burns. This energy that was flowing through his arms was still energy, but it was different too. It was subtly so, but different nonetheless.

At that moment, Ed was fairly sure he was in another world. It was not his world. Alchemy was a science and would not be different if he was simply in another country in his own world. This place was nowhere in the alternate world either. He had traveled that world extensively and never did feel the power of alchemy, or the power he was feeling now.

"Great. Where the hell am I now?" Ed said to himself.

Still needing a fire, Ed went and found the flint stone he kept in his backpack. There was enough wood lying around nearby that he was able to get a respectable fire going in no time. His tent was setup a few minutes after the fire was going. His dinner consisted of some dried meat and a drink of water. It was hardly satisfying, and his rations would not hold out long. He would have to find civilization shortly. He would head to the road tomorrow and travel. Roads always connected cities.

Ed stretched out on his bedroll. He wondered where Al and Noa ended up. If Al or Noa were nearby, the fire would draw them close. He was not really worried about either of them. Both of them had spent enough time on the road that a few days camping out, even with out supplies, would be nothing more than an inconvenience. Sleep found him quickly.

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Ed had only been walking down the road for about an hour when he saw a vehicle approach. As it got closer, he realized that it was at the same time unlike any vehicle he had ever seen before, and yet very familiar. It was largely shaped like the old truck that had carried them through the desert, though painted bright red instead of pale green. However, it had no wheels. Instead the whole thing hovered about a foot above the ground. As the vehicle got closer, Ed tried to flag it down. Rides on strange floating trucks were far better than walking after all.

The car pulled over. Driving was a tall man with a square face, red hair and a bushy red beard. He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. His wrists seemed as thick as Ed's neck.

"Where you headed kid?" the man asked.

To say that Ed was relieved that the man spoke English was an understatement. Trying to convince a stranger for a ride while using a foreign tongue would have been near impossible. They would have never have made it through France without Noa's help. She had a gift for languages.

"Just to the next town, sir." Ed said.

"What are you doin' out here by your self?" the man asked.

"Just traveling. I'm too poor to afford transportation." Ed said.

"Looking for work then?" the man asked.

Ed nodded. It wasn't a complete lie. He wanted to set out to find Al and Noa as soon as possible, but the journey would be far easier if he had a little bit of money.

"All right. Hop on in. I'm headed to Peach Grove. I'll take you that far."

Ed smiled to the man. "Thank you sir."

The man just grunted in response, then opened the passenger door for Ed. Ed placed his pack in the bed of the man's flying-truck-thing and got in. Once he was seated, he held out his left hand to the other man.

"Edward Elric." He said.

The man took his hand and shook twice. His grip was powerful; almost but not quite painful. Now that Ed was able to get a good look at him, he realized this man was indeed, huge. He gave off the illusion of being as wide as he was tall, and was solid. Physically he reminded Ed of Major Armstrong, except where Armstrong obviously took time to carefully sculpt his muscles, this man was the type to get them from doing lots of heavy lifting all day.

"Thomas Bradley." He responded.

Ed sat back as Thomas moved the car forward. As far as Ed could tell, from the inside the car was the same as the ones from America. One petal made the car go forward, one made it stop. Thomas never did have to shift anything though. It would be interesting to see how the propulsion system worked. And how did the bloody thing float?

"So what kind of work are you looking for?" Thomas asked.

"Just a couple of odd jobs. I need some traveling money so I can find my brother. I'm good at fixing things." Ed said.

"Well, I doubt you will find anything much in Peach Grove. It's a small place. You should go to Four Rivers. It's only a couple days walk from Peach Grove. You could make it in a couple hours if you can find a ride. Folks go out that way a lot." He said.

The two men fell into silence after that. Ed had a thousand questions he wanted to ask Thomas, but he didn't want to seem too ignorant. There would be too many questions if he revealed he was an outsider. Ed decided he needed to find a library or something as soon as possible.

"Are you any good?" Thomas asked, breaking Ed out of his train of thoughts.

"Huh? Good?" Ed asked.

"At fixing things." Thomas said.

Ed nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty good."

"Tell you what. I got something that needs fixing. I can't pay you much, but if you do it I'll give you fifty bits, a room for the night, a hot meal, and I'll drive you to Four Rivers tomorrow. How's that sound?" Thomas asked.

Ed had no idea how much fifty bits was. He did know it was better than zero bits, which was how much he had with him. The rest of the deal sounded good to Ed too. He really didn't want more dried meat for dinner. But then, if it was one of these floating-car-things that needed fixing, Ed doubted it was a job he could finish.

"I'll see what I can do." Ed said.

"Appreciate it." Thomas replied.

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It was midday when Ed and Thomas arrived at Thomas' house. Thomas lived in a modest size place. It was two stories and had a great sweeping porch that stretched from the front of the house and around the side. Ed couldn't tell if it went behind the house. There was lots of land, and fields that stretched to the horizon. It reminded Ed of his hometown. Out front, there were two small children, a girl and a boy, playing with a small gray dog. When Thomas got out of the car the children ran up to him. He lifted the girl high in the air and twirled her around. He set her down, and then he ruffled the boy's hair.

"Edward, these are my children. Elaine here is four, and Mark is five." He motioned to the children.

Elaine hid behind her father's leg. Mark waved to Ed, and then grabbed his sister's hand to take her back to playing with the dog. Thomas started to walk towards the house and motioned for Ed to follow him.

They walked up porch stair, the third step creaked when Ed's heavy automail leg steped on it. Thomas ushered Ed inside the house. Ed noticed that it was a considerably cooler inside than it was outside, obviously artificially cooled. The lights seemed to be electric. Ed followed Thomas to the kitchen. In the kitchen was a medium sized woman with blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. She looked to be in her mid thirties. The woman was cooking something that smelled wonderful. Ed had to concentrate to from drooling.

"Hey Anna, I'm home." Thomas said.

The woman turned around and kissed her husband on the cheek. He returned a kiss to hers. Then her eyes fell on Ed.

"And who is this?" she asked.

"This is Edward Elric. Edward, this is my wife Anna. Edward here has agreed to fix our skimmer." Thomas said.

Anna frowned. So did Edward. A "skimmer" could only be one of those floating-car-things. Damn. The food smelled so good too.

"Thomas, you know we can't afford to get that fixed right now." She scolded.

Thomas put his hands up in what looked like a warding gesture. "It's ok. He agreed to do the job for fifty bits if we put him up for the night and I give him a ride to Four Rivers tomorrow." Thomas said.

Anna's cheeks immediately turned pink. She grabbed Edwards's hand and shook it. Edward was completely confused.

"I thank you for your generosity Edward. Please, enjoy our hospitality tonight." Anna said.

Ed scratched the back of his head. "Hey, no promises that I can fix the thing. I don't even know what's wrong with it."

Ed felt kind of bad for deceiving Thomas like he was. He doubted if he could fix the skimmer, but he had promised to try. He hoped the engine was like the cars from the other world. Maybe if he couldn't fix it they would still feed him for trying. Still, there was no sense in putting it off.

"I'd like to take a look at your skimmer now. I don't know how long this is going to take." Ed said.

"Right down to business. Anna, I like this kid. Follow me." Thomas said.

Thomas led Ed out the back door. The porch did stretch all the way to the back. They walked to a barn fifty or so meters from the house. Thomas opened the large barn doors and flicked a switch, turning on an overhead light.

The light revealed all manner of contraptions. There was what looked like half a dozen manikins standing stone still in the bar. Ed thought that they looked much like golems. There were a couple of larger machines there too that Ed could not even hazard a guess as to what they were for. Thomas stopped next to a fast looking skimmer. It had sleek lines and black paint. Ed had never seen anything like it. The skimmer was not floating in the air like the truck-like one.

"I bought this a few years ago from a fellow passing through town. It worked great for a while, but about a year ago it stopped. I was hoping to sell it so I could afford to put my kids in a decent school." Thomas explained.

Ed really had no idea where to begin, and was relieved when Thomas fiddled with something under the steering wheel and the hood of the skimmer opened. Edward looked inside and was amazed. He had to hold in a gasp. There was a web of copper wire that was arranged in a beautiful intricate pattern. He had no idea where to even begin looking for a problem with this. Still he had to make it look good. He would have to take a risk though and bank on Thomas' ignorance.

"Hmm. This is not good. Thomas, this will probably take me an hour. I'm honestly not sure I can fix this." He said.

Thomas made a face. "Damn. Well, do your best kid. I'm got a bit of work to do inside."

And Thomas left. Ed spent the next fifteen minutes staring at the intricate pattern. He knew he couldn't fix it. Still he wanted to study it. The more he looked at it though, the more he thought that it was kind of familiar. The way the lines and curves interacted with each other just looked right.

His eyes widened slightly when he realized why it was familiar. If a transmutation circle was every made three dimensional instead of flat, he was thought it might look something like the mess in front of him. Once he realized that, his mind began to break down the pattern. A soft curve intersecting with a right angle here, a pair of curves intertwining to make a single line there. And near the right side of the web two right angles almost touching. Ed couldn't help but thing that the two right angles should be touching. He looked at the pattern that the rest of the web followed and saw that, according to the pattern, the two should be touching.

Ed reached out and grabbed the two copper wires to move them so they would fit together. He might as well have been trying to move steel girders. Not even the strength of his automail could move the wire. Looking at the web as a whole again he thought that copper should not be able to support as much weight as was without bending. When he touched the wire though, he felt that buzz of power that was so similar to the buzz of alchemy more acutely. Ed figured he might as well give his alchemy a shot one more time. After all, last time he had been a few steps passed exhausted.

Ed clapped his hands together. The power made it's way to his palms, then he thrust his palms down on the copper wire. He half expected a flash of light that would render the wire in to the pattern he had in his mind. Instead he bent two handprints into the copper wire. Ed panicked slightly when he saw this and tried to bend the wires back into shape. They were once again rigged as inch thick steel.

Ed went over in his mind what had happened. When he clapped his hands together, the felt the buzz of power travel to his palms. It stayed on his palms as he placed them on the copper wire. The feeling was still there as he pulled his hands back from the wire. The buzz didn't fade for a few seconds.

Ed clapped his hands together again, and this time he grabbed a piece of wire in his hand. It was as malleable as he expected thin copper wire to be. About five seconds after he first touched the wire it became ridged again. This coincided with the same time the buzz left his hands. Ed smirked. Perhaps he could fix this thing after all.

It took him fifteen minutes of clapping and manipulating to fix the damage his had done when he slammed his hands into the copper net. One quick manipulation later and he had joined the right angle. Half of a heartbeat after the angle was joined, the skimmer rose about a foot off the ground.

Ed stared dumbly at the risen skimmer for a moment. He had just fixed a piece of nearly alien technology on nothing more than a hunch. Ed threw his hand up in the air and let out a mighty whoop.

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Ed stayed in the barn for another fifteen minutes, just examining the copper web and other parts of the skimmer. He found half a dozen webs similar to the copper one that went where the engine should go. Though he couldn't tell what any of them were for, he could tell that each one followed the same pattern rules as the engine. Whatever rules governed the energy this place used, they were set in stone like alchemy's rules.

Ed could have been happy working in the barn all day, but he really wanted to learn some more about this place. He decided to go find Thomas and ask the older man if Peach Grove had a library. His stomach reminded him that he should do something about lunch.

Ed left the barn, making sure to close it behind him. He crossed the yard and walked up onto the porch. He opened the back door to see Anna making sandwiches in the kitchen.

"Oh, Edward. I was just about to go out to the barn to see if you were hungry," she said as she lifted a plate off the counter.

Ed smiled. "I'm famished." He said.

Anna passed the sandwich, ham and Swiss cheese, to Ed. He thanked her, and then promptly dug in. She had just finished pouring him of tea when he finished. He took the glass of tea from her and drained it in one draught.

"Ah, that was wonderful. Thanks Anna!" he said.

Anna had a kind of surprised look on her face. "My, you ate that so fast." She said.

"Yeah, well I have spent a lot of time on the road. You learn to take your meals quickly when you travel." Ed said.

"So, how are the repairs going?" Anna asked.

Ed smirked. "All done."

Anna looked surprised again. "Wow. So fast," she said, and then her face took on a more somber demeanor, "And thank you for doing the repair for so cheap. I know it's a lot less than your normal rate." She said.

Ed wondered how much a repair like that normally cost. He still didn't know how much a bit was worth. Yes, a library would be most helpful. His ignorance made waving off her thanks easy.

"It was nothing. Thomas helped me when I was in trouble, the least I could do is return the favor. If you really want to thank me though, you could drive me to this town's library. I really want to look something up before dinner." Ed said.

"I would, but Peach Grove doesn't have a library. Sorry. But I have about a million books in the basement. I like to read, and I knew that they will be useful when the kids get older. Maybe you can find what you need down there?" she asked.

That arrangement actually suited Ed just fine. It kept him closer to the food. He stood up and so did Anna.

"That sounds fine to me." Ed said.

Anna led Ed to the door that led down to the basement. The stairs were narrow, but well lit. Anna was not kidding when she said she had about a million books. The whole basement was full of them.

"I may be down here a while. Come get me when dinner is ready?" he asked.

"Ok. Have fun Edward." Anna said.

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Ed was interrupted from his studies a few hours after he was first shown the room full of books. While in the basement he had learnt a lot. First of all, a bit was worth about fifty cents. So, Thomas paid him about the equivalent of a weeks pay for an average American, and Anna thought that was way too low. How much did repairmen make here anyway?

He also learned some about the area. He was in a country called The Rovan Confederate. It took up the area consisting of everything east of the middle of Texas. To the west was the Coradia Empire. It stretched from the Rovan border all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He was currently located in a province Indur, where Alabama was in the other world. The closest major city was Chago, about one hundred miles to the north. That was where Ed decided to go. It is where Al would go if the transmutation circle had deposited him anywhere close.

The most interesting thing he learned was about Sorcery. It was akin to his world's alchemy, and about the same number of people practiced it as practiced alchemy. None of the books Anna had went on in any great detail about Sorcery though. That was not overly surprising. If it were anything like alchemy, then only those studying it would own the books that taught it. It was like, buy the same token, Anna didn't have any books on medicine.

Ed joined the Bradley's at their dinner table. Anna had cooked up a wonderful looking casserole, and a stew that had undoubtedly won Thomas' heart in the first place. The first few minutes of the meal were spent in silence as a testament to Anna's meal. In other words, Ed couldn't talk when his mouth was full with stew. After the initial feeding frenzy ended the Bradley's started to talk, and Ed got the feeling that he was being interrogated.

"So Edward, forgive me for prying, but why is someone of your talents struggling for money?" Thomas asked. He seemed a bit nervous.

Ed had to think fast. "I don't have time to work. I spend all of my time looking for my brother. He's been missing for a while now. It's got me kind of nervous."

"Does he have your… talents?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, he is every bit as good as I am." Ed replied.

"Did you find the information you were looking for?" Anna asked.

Ed noticed how quickly she changed topics. He remembered a passage he read. Most will not meddle in the affairs of sorcerers it said. That could come in handy.

Ed scratched the back of his head again. "Yup. Your books are great. Elaine and Mark are goanna make great use of them. So, what do you guys do around here?" Ed asked.

Thomas and Anna seemed more relieved than Ed was when the focus of the conversation changed. Ed learned that Thomas worked the land around here. He grew grain that he sold in Four Rivers for a decent sum. He wanted more for his children of course; he wanted them to grow up educated and go to a university.

After dinner, Ed wanted to go back down to the library and read some more. Mark and Elaine had other plans. They recruited Ed for a game of tag. Thomas and Anna tried to stop them from bothering their guest, but Ed really didn't mind. It would get his mind off of the overwhelming feeling of being stuck in a new world that kept threatening to pound his psyche in to mush. The next couple of hours passed quickly. They played tag, the hide and seek, and then a game called moon in the water the children had to teach Ed. Soon the children were worn out and ready for bed.

Ed was seated in a rocking chair on the porch watching the sun go down when Thomas approached him. He clapped Ed on the shoulder and then sat down in the chair next to him. He stuffed a pipe with some tobacco and then offered the pipe to Ed. Ed declined.

"Looks like the Kids wore you out." Thomas said.

"Yeah. Mark is so full of energy, and Elaine is awfully bright." Ed said.

"You should get some sleep too. We got an early start to Four Rivers tomorrow." Thomas said.

"Yeah. Night." Ed said as he stood up.

"Night." He heard Thomas call as he went inside.

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A/N: My first reviewer brought up the question about the age of the characters. According to his Wikipedia article, Ed was between the ages of 16-18 during the Conqueror of Shamballa. That would make him between 18-20 at the start of this story. For the simple fact that I'm more comfortable with older characters, Ed is 20. Noa's age was never specified; though I always thought she was about the same age as Ed. So, she's 20 as well. Al is a little more complicated, what with his resurrections and what not. The general consensus is that he is two years younger than Ed. That would make him 18 in this story. True, he lost some years at the end of the television series, but he got them back at the end of the Conqueror of Shamballa. His body is physically younger (closer to that of a 16 year old), but he has a full18 years of existence under his belt.

Also, I had formatting problems last time. It seems the little marks I put in between the different parts of my chapters didn't make the transition from Microsoft Word to whatever format it is that this place uses. I went back and fixed that, and fixed it in this chapter as well. I Hope it's a bit easier on my reader's eyes.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew Cross


	3. Chapter 3: The Bradley’s Problem

Fullmetal Sorcerer

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Fullmetal Alchemist stuff. I do, however, own the rest of it.

Chapter 3: The Bradley's Problem

Ed woke up when the morning light started to shine right in his eyes. He sleepily sat up and wondered what time it was. The little windup clock by his bed told him ten seventeen. Ed wondered what happened to getting an early start. Still, he had slept for almost fourteen hours. Interdimensional travel must have taken more out of him than he thought.

He left his room, made a quick stop at the bathroom, and then started downstairs to try and figure out what happened to his early start. The downstairs was quiet. He didn't hear anyone bustling about. Did Thomas forget about him or something?

"Hello?" he called out.

He heard someone stir in the room behind him. Moments later, Anna emerged from the back. She had a half read book in her right hand.

"Oh, Edward. You're awake. Would you like some breakfast?" she said as she started towards the kitchen.

"Yeah. Breakfast sounds great," he said as he followed. "Say, what happened to leaving early for Four Rivers?"

Anna's eyes crinkled ever so slightly. "Last night after you went to bed, Elaine came down with a high fever. Thomas drove her to Centerville see a healer. He's not back yet."

"Centerville?" Ed asked.

"A small town to the south of here. It's about an hour closer than Four Rivers." She said.

"Does this town not have a healer or something?" he asked.

"No. That's not it. Thomas and the healer don't get along. He refuses to treat anyone in our family." She responded.

"Some doctor he is." Ed said.

"Ham and Eggs ok?" she asked him, changing the subject.

"Perfect." Ed responded, deciding not to pry.

"This will take a few minutes. If you want you can go get cleaned up. Breakfast should be ready by the time your done." Anna said.

Ed saw her turn on the stove. It clicked twice before a flame sprouted in the middle of one of the eyes. It seemed to be gas powered. So, not every piece of technology in this world was based upon sorcery. Gas power did mean that the shower would probably be hot. Ed thought that sounded like a wonderful idea.

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Ed watched the landscape zip buy from the seat of the sleek black skimmer he had fixed the previous day. Much of the area was farmland. They had passed three larger farms and a half a dozen smaller ones while driving into town. In the fields of most of the farms, Ed saw the same kind of golem like things he saw in the Bradley's barn working the fields. They apparently served the same function as golems did in his world, except that they were far more common.

Despite the fact that he was being delayed in his search for Al and Noa, Ed had to admit to having had a pretty good morning. Breakfast was tasty. The hot shower had been a small piece of heaven. At about noon, Anna come down to the basement and told Ed that Thomas was not going to be back until nighttime. She offered him another night's room and board, and promised that in the morning he would get his ride to Four Rivers.

Ed wasn't happy about having to wait an extra day, but the time spent with Anna's books would prove valuable.

Then she asked if he wanted to go into town with her. She had some errands to run, and figured that he would probably at lest like to ask around to see if anyone matching his brothers description had been to town recently. Ed really did want to see the town, and he did need to look for his brother. It seemed to be a win-win situation for him. Before they left, Anna gave Ed five ten-bit notes.

Peach Grove turned out to be very similar to a hundred other small towns Ed had visited. He guessed that if you counted all the surrounding areas, the population of the town might reach 400 to 500 people; small enough where most of the inhabitants knew most everyone.

It was about one in the afternoon when they first got to town. Anna got her errands done quickly. She stopped by a bank, bought few things at the market and stopped at a candy store to get Mark a chocolate bar. He squealed happily when she handed it to him.

Next they went to Millie's, a small outdoors cafe where the townsfolk gathered and swapped stores, roomers and gossip. Most of it was small town chatter, who was seen doing what inappropriate thing with who, who was getting married, that kind of thing. Ed could hear very little real news. It all bored him terribly. After only a few minutes of chatter, he learned no one new had come through town recently. No one had seen anyone who matched Al's or Noa's description, except for a few older folks who said they knew someone like that "a log time ago."

Anna met up with a few of her friends and started gossiping as badly as the rest of town. Mark was playing jacks with a couple of the younger children. Ed just stared out across the street. He saw a clothing store across the way and decided he would go try and find a nice jacket. He hadn't packed one when he went traveling through the desert, and the nights were pretty chilly in these parts. Ed knew they would only be getting colder as winter set in.

Ed excused himself and crossed the street into the clothing store. The shopkeeper, a round little man with a pencil thin mustache, helped him find a coat that would work. It was similar to the red coat he used to wear, but made of black leather. It set him back five bits, which was actually cheaper than he thought it would be.

As he crossed the street back, he noticed that a small crowd had gathered at the café. He pushed his way through the crowd to see Anna in the center and three men surrounding her. None of the men were that large. Two or the men had dark hair and one had light hair. One of the dark haired men had a beard. The two standing off to the sides had on workman's clothes. The man in front, the one with the beard, was wearing a cheap suit. Mark had a scowl on his face and stood protectively in front of his mother.

"Bastard. Stop calling my daughter a witch. Leave us alone. She hasn't done anything to you." She screamed at the man in front.

The man in the cheap suit took a step forward. "That's no way to talk to a gentleman such as my self." He said.

Mark darted forward, standing in between the man in the cheap suit and Anna. He looked terrified, tears streaming down his face. The man in the cheap suit reached down and roughly shoved Mark out the way. Anna moved to go to her son, but the man in the cheap suit grabbed her by the shirt at her neck.

"We are not going to tell you many more times. Take that little witch and leave this town. If you wait too much longer something bad might happen to your whole family." He said, shaking her every few word as if to punctuate his meaning.

Ed had enough the moment the man in the cheap suit's hand touched Mark. He pushed his way through the rest of the crowd and hurried over to Anna. Moments after the threat left the man in the cheap suit's mouth, Ed grabbed the pinky of the hand the man had on Anna's collar with his automail empowered right hand and twisted. The superior strength of the automail broke the man's grip in an instant. Ed then twisted the man around, and kept his hand in a lock.

"Apologize to the kid," he said.

"Who the hell are you?" the man grunted.

Ed twisted the man's pinky hard enough to cause a good deal of pain. "Apologize to the kid, now."

"I'm sorry!" the man yelped.

Ed let go of the man's pinky and shoved him roughly away. The man stumbled forward a few steps and then turned to face Ed. He really didn't look like he meant his apology.

"You little brat!" the man in the cheap suit yelled.

The man charged toward Ed, swinging wildly. Ed calmly stepped out of the way of the punch. As he did, he tripped the man sending him sprawling to the floor. He saw the man on the right with the light hair charge forward with a punch as well. Ed aimed a punch to the other mans outstretched fist with his automail arm. The two fists met, and the light haired man recoiled back in pain. He sank to his knees nursing a newly broken hand.

Ed glared at the third man, who took a nervous step back. "Get out of here before I decide to actually hurt you."

The three men who had been accosting Anna turned tail and ran. First, Ed went to check on Mark who no longer had tears streaming down his face. He was looking up at Ed like Ed was some kind of hero.

"Are you all right Mark?" he asked.

"That was wicked." Mark said.

Ed ruffled the boy's hair and then went to go check on Anna. She had her hand clutched to her chest and was breathing heavily. Ed looked closer and saw she was shaking slightly.

"Come on. Lets get out of here. Guys like that sometimes like to come back with friends." Ed said.

Anna nodded, but otherwise remained silent. She then hurried over to Mark and scooped the boy back into her arms. They rushed out of the café and back to the black skimmer.

She drove out of town quickly. Ed kept glancing back, making sure no one was following them. Violence often brought more violence, even when it was the best decision.

"So," Ed asked, "What was that all about?"

"I… I can't tell you." Anna said. She looked guilty and afraid.

"It's because Elaine can see the future." Mark said from the back.

Anna jerked back so hard that she almost ran the skimmer off the road. "Mark!" she yelled.

Ed was a little taken aback from Anna's out burst. It meant the boy was probably telling the truth though. Or at least Anna believed it was the truth.

"It's ok momma. Elaine said last night that Eddie would help us."

Ed nodded, smiling slightly at Mark's mispronunciation of his name. "Yeah, I want to help you. Tell me what's going on."

Anna was silent for a moment. Then she said, "For as long as Elaine could talk, she has been telling us things that were going to happen. Mostly it was small and silly things. Daddy is going to be home late, or I'm getting a new doll for my birthday. When she was three, she wore a raincoat to a picnic on a sunny day. She was the only one who stayed dry.

"About six months ago she met Christopher Hurst. He has a large tennason farm north of the city. He's the richest and most powerful person in the town. About fifty people work for him at his farm, as well as over two hundred constructs. When she met him, she hid behind Thomas and yelled over and over again that he was going to kill everyone.

"A lot of people thought she was just being silly, and ignored the whole incident. But those who know her, that know us, kind of believed her. They had seen her ability before. Then a roomer popped up that Elaine was actually an escaped experiment from the central government; a very dangerous experiment that would drive everyone in the town crazy eventually. Not many people believed the roomers. A few did.

"A few weeks later, we started getting harassed by Hurst's thugs. It has been getting progressively worse. Thomas has been in a good number of fights over it. Today was the first time one of the thugs ever touched me or the one of the children though."

Ed made up his mind as he listened to her story. He would help them with their problem before setting out to Four Rivers. He was anxious to find his brother, but he knew his brother was capable of handling just about anything the world would throw at him. These people needed his help now. For a moment, he wondered why trouble kept finding him.

"If you'll let me, I'll help you." He said.

"You will?" Ed watched the fear and anxiety evaporate off her face. "You believe us about her being able to see into the future?"

"I know a woman who can do something very similar. She can see into a persons past just by touching them. But even if her power is just a figment of your imaginations, I can't sit by and watch people get bullied. I'll do what I can to help you." Ed said.

Anna stared into Ed's eyes for a moment. "I wonder if I can trust you." She said, seemingly more to herself than anyone else.

"Elaine said he's a good guy." Mark said from the back.

"I'll have Thomas tell you the rest of the story when he gets home. He knows more than I do." She said.

"Yeah." Ed said as he stared out the window. It wondered what it was that made him always want to help people in these kinds of situations.

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Ed was in the Bradley guest room reading a book about skimmer technology, learning what the heck a tennason plant was. As far as he could tell, it was an herb that, when mixed with oil, made it easier to construct those web like structures he found in the skimmer. He also learned those web-like structures were actually called webs. He supposed something as common as they were would have to have a common name.

A knock on the door disturbed Ed from his reading. "Enter." He said.

Thomas walked in and sat in a chair near the bed. Ed sat up to face the older man. He had heavy and dark circles under his eyes. He looked tired.

"How's Elaine?" Ed asked.

"The healers fixed her up just fine. They don't know what caused the fever." Thomas said.

"Well, as long as she's ok." Ed said.

Thomas grunted, and then said, "Edward, I am thankful for what you did for my wife and son yesterday. But you shouldn't get involved. This is our problem. Tomorrow I'll take you to Four Rivers, like I promised."

Ed frowned. "Thomas, I'm already involved. I am already going to get even more involved. If you don't tell me what is going on I'll figure it out for my self. It will save everyone involved a lot of trouble if you just tell me your story."

Thomas leaned back in the seat and stared at Ed for several long moments. Ed felt like Thomas was trying to take a look into his soul. It was a really uncomfortable feeling.

"What the hell. The rest of my family seems to trust you. It doesn't feel right getting help from a kid though." Thomas leaned back in his seat and began his story.

"After my daughter said that Hurst was going to kill everyone, I naturally got suspicious of him. I had Elaine explain to me what she meant, but Elaine is still so young. She doesn't have the words to explain what she saw. She said everyone would get sick and then die. So, what could kill everyone?"

"If you share a communal water supply that would do it. So would a plague or a cloud of poison in the air." Ed answered.

"That's bout what I came up with too. So I did some investigating. I'm not very good at it, but I have a friend in Four Rivers who does exactly that. He gave me some pointers and checked around Four Rivers to see if he could learn anything.

"He found out that every week, one of Hurst's men would come to the docks in Four Rivers and pick up a shipment of unmarked boxes shipped from Chago. There was no record of the senders name in any of the ships registries. One week, I decided to find out what was in those boxes. I followed the man who picked up the boxes from Four Rivers all the way back to Hurst's Farm.

"I can't walk into Hurst's farm. There are too many people and most of them would not hesitate a moment to kill me for trespassing. I'm not very well liked among his employees. So for three weeks I followed the man who went to pick up the package. Finally I got a break when he pulled over at a restation to relieve himself. I opened up one of the boxes. Inside there were canisters of Relon.

"You are not in the business, so you probably don't know what Relon is. It is one of the most potent fertilizers known to man. It works particularly well on the tennason plant. However, it is highly toxic. In places where there is no ground water, it is widely used to grow things we don't eat. We have lots of ground water in this part of the country, so it is highly illegal here. With this knowledge, I rushed to the police. But Hurst is too powerful. They won't move on him without concrete proof. Now I don't know what to do.

"I would estimate that Hurst would have to use Relon for seven years before enough of the chemical got into our groundwater supplies to be harmful. About five years ago, he started making all kinds of money when his tennason farm started having excellent yields. He attributed his success to his new constructs."

Ed listened carefully. The plot was a very familiar one to him. A man with a lot of money was exploiting a town to gain even more money. Ed made a personal vow to punch Hurst really hard at least one time before he turned him over to the police. Maybe he'd even punch him twice.

"That's a lot to take in. Let me think about how to handle this for a while. I'll have a good plan ready in the morning." Ed said.

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Ed woke up coughing. He took in a lung full of air, only to find it full of smoke. His danger sense, born through years of adventuring swept his sleepiness away. This house was on fire.

He ran over to the window. The moon was full and cast more than enough light to see by on the yard below. He looked outside and saw five people standing in a group in front of the house. There were the three guys from before, and two more, much larger men. One of the large men had a wicked looking scar on his right cheek. Ed could see Anna on the porch holding a large and dangerous looking kitchen knife. Her two children cowered behind her. The men were blocking her from getting off the porch. Thomas was nowhere to be seen.

Ed picked up his pack, and was about to hurl it though the window when his door burst open. Thomas came in. His cloths were slightly singed and he was coughing hard. Ed cast one glance at Thomas and then threw his pack through the window. He used his right automail arm to clear the glass away.

"This way." He said to Thomas.

Thomas nodded through his coughs. Ed jumped out of the window. When he landed on the porch, rolled into the fall and came up on his feet. He doubted a circus performer could have done it better. Thomas landed far less gracefully. He plopped down onto his feet and then fell back hard on his rear. He proved to be made of very stern stuff though, because he popped back up, apparently unharmed.

Ed surveyed the men in front of him, all of who were looking at the two men with astonished faces. There were weapons, but none of them had a firearm. That would make this far easier.

"Your boss has gone too far this time. If any of you can walk by the time I'm through with you, let Hurst know he's going down."

Ed clapped his hands together and then sprang into action. He leapt onto the rail of the porch, and then jumped off and delivered a spectacular automail powered spinning jump kick to the large man without the scar. Ed watched scarless' jaw break when the automail impacted it. The man went down in a boneless heap. It would be some time before he was able to stand up again.

The man in the cheap suit and the light haired man rushed forward at the same time. Thomas blindsided the light haired man with a tackle, and both of them went down in a tangle of limbs. The man in the cheap suit slashed at Ed with a small knife. Ed caught the knife hand with his right hand. He squeezed hard enough to make the man drop his knife. He drew back his left, intent on punching cheap suit in the face a few times, but as he threw the punch, scar face hit him with a bat. Fortunatley for Ed, the blow landed on his automail, but it was still enough to knock him back.

Ed's punch missed his mark. Instead of a knock out punch to the chin, Ed punched cheap suit in the eye. The punch still knocked cheap suit down. Ed watched scarface raise his bat again. Ed kicked scar face in the knee with his automail. Scar face's kneecap shifted to the side, and then the large man went down screaming, clutching his now ruined knee. He saw the dark haired man from earlier, the only man who didn't try to fight, body check Anna. She was thrown roughly to the ground. Mark was fast enough to not get knocked over, but Elaine was hit by the man's leg. She flew through the air and landed a couple feet away and started screaming. Her arm was sitting at an unnatural angel, obviously broken.

Ed started to move forward to help Anna, but he was a step too slow. Thomas speared the smaller man and then drove him into the ground. Then Thomas started pounding on the other mans face. Ed couldn't help but cringe slightly at the ferocity of the attack.

Ed turned to check on Elaine, only to see cheap suit standing over her with a knife. "I know. I'll just kill this little bitch. Then it will all be over!" he yelled.

Before the knife started to cut through the air, Ed was in motion. As he rushed forward, years of battles made him clap his hands together. If he had his alchemy, he would have created a shield between the knife and the child. Without alchemy, all he could do is throw his arms up and hope the knife caught automail.

Ed was as shocked as cheap suit when the knife stopped four inches in of Ed's out stretched hands. There was a pale glowing blue circle between Ed and his attacker. Cheap suits eyes widened to the size of tires. Ed didn't stop to think about the nature of the glowing circle. Instead he punched cheap suit in the jaw with right arm hard enough to knock at least three teeth loose from his head. Cheap suits jaw was pulped, and his face forever ruined.

Anna, who had already gotten to Elaine's side, yelled "Thomas, the Constructs!"

Thomas let go of the man whose face he had been pulverizing, and sprinted around the back of the house. Less than two minutes later, half a dozen artificial men went about the business of extinguishing the fire. Ed got a length of rope out of his pack and used it to tie up the five men. While he busied himself with that, Anna had tried to comfort Elaine.

"Anna, you should take Elaine to the healer in central. Thomas, would you please take me off Hurst's farm."

Anna nodded, then scooped up Elaine. "To Hurst's farm? Why?" she asked.

"He sent his men to attack innocent children. That is something I cannot forgive. So, I'm angry and I have deiced to use a smash and grab strategy. I'm going to go get the evidence you need to put him away." Ed said.

"Ok. Good luck. Don't do anything too dangerous." She said.

"I'll go get the skimmer." Thomas said.

"How far is it to the farm?" Ed asked.

"About an hour from here." Thomas said.

Ed smirked. "Lets take the truck. I'm going to ride in the back and figure something out on the way."

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Hurst's farm was immense. Ed had Thomas cut the lights as they approached, and then requested to be dropped off a little way down the road so the guards would not hear his approach. Even with the moon as bright as it was, his newly acquired black coat made it easy to sneak through the shadows. The main warehouse, the place where Thomas said the unmarked packages of Relon were taken, was sounded by a fence. Ed could see one guard that walked around the perimeter of the fence, and another guard that stood by the door. He waited until the walking guard was near the front of the gate before he made his move.

He calmly walked up to the front of the gate. The guard shinned a flashlight on Ed. "Who's there?" the guard called.

Without a word, Ed reached out and grabbed the lock on the gate. He pulled hard, and the weak chain gave way to his automail. The guard scrambled back nervously; fumbling for a whistle he kept around his neck. Ed clapped his hands together and thrust them forward.

While Thomas drove to Hurst's place, Ed worked out exactly how he made that shield. When he tried to focus power for alchemy, he instead focused power for sorcery. They were so close that he could focus the power easily. But he didn't know what to do with any of that sorcery power. When he fixed the matrix he just let it linger in his hands. When he created the shield, he had unwittingly forced it out of his hands.

Fifteen minutes of trial and error later, he had learned that when he easily forced the energy out in front of him, it created a barrier. It would stay in place for about seven seconds, and then fade. During his trip, he also learned that he could project that power outwards. The more energy he gathered, the further the energy could be projected, and the more forcefully it could be projected. It was all very similar to forcing energy into an alchemy circle. Just instead of into a circle, he projected it into the air. Making the shield was akin to just letting the power go, while projecting it forward was like throwing it. Just before he arrived at Hurst's place, he managed to do some impressive and explosive damage to a large tree. He thought the tree looked very much like it had been struck by lightning. Best of all, the energy blasts themselves were silent, though the impact could still make sound.

The blast caught the guard square in the chest. He flew through the air, and the crashed to the ground. He didn't get up. Ed stopped for a moment to make sure the man was still breathing. He just wanted to take the man out, not kill him. The guard was out cold, and probably had a concussion, but he was alive.

The guard in front of the main door rushed forward to see what the commotion was. Ed blindsided him with another blast. This guard caught it hard in the side. He spun around a couple times before crashing down, unconscious, to the ground.

Ed threw open the large front door. Half a dozen surprised faces greeted him. They must have been the night shift.

"Who the hell are you?" A man with a gun at his hip asked. There must have been one more guard.

"Edward Elric. I'm here for the Relon." He said.

The guard must have seen his two fallen coworkers, because he drew his gun and fired three times. Ed clapped his hands together and formed his shield. The bullets impacted harmlessly with the shield and then fell to the floor. Ed clapped again and unleashed a blast towards the guard. To caught him center and blasted him into the sheet metal wall hard enough to bend it. The guard started to move, but must have thought better of it because his body went slack and still.

"Shit, he's a sorcerer. Everyone run!" one of the workers yelled.

The whole room was empty in an instant. So, sorcerers commanded the same amount of respect in this world as alchemist did in his. Perhaps he would try to learn some sorcery if he was going to be stuck in this world.

It only took Ed a couple of minutes to find a canister with the words Relon printed on it. He hefted the canister, and then walked out of the warehouse unopposed. He stopped at the first guard he felled, and took his flashlight. The light flickered four times through the night sky, a signal he had worked out earlier with Thomas.

Minutes later, Thomas pulled the skimmer-truck up to the gate. Ed had a little bit of trouble getting the canister of Relon into the back of the skimmer-truck. It was pretty heavy. Once he got it in, he climbed into the passengers seat.

"How'd it go?" Thomas asked.

"Mission accomplished." Ed said.

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A/N: Thanks for the compliments everyone. They make it much easier to sit down and write something :-)

And on the age question: At the end of The Conqueror of Shamballa Al gets his memories back. Ed says, "Al, are you telling me your memories back?" Al replies "Mmm hmm. When I left our own world I think." So. Right. Al's an 18 year old with the body of a 16ish year old.

Finally, to anyone wondering where the world of Sorcery came from, don't bother trying to find it elsewhere. It only exists in my twisted noodle, and on these pages.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew Cross


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